The Book of Lost Tales Part I: A Readthrough

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

I never thought you confused anything - just gave an opportunity for discussion of an obscure (to modern minds) word - which I kind of enjoy

Thanks! However it's not confuse but cofuse... did the 'quote function' change the spelling?

I mean, don't tell me it's not a word (it might not be, b'just don't tell me)!

[Puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Galin

Thanks! However it's not confuse but cofuse... did the 'quote function' change the spelling?
I mean, don't tell me it's not a word (it might not be, b'just don't tell me)!

No, that was my mental spell-checker :/. Since you used "cofuse" intentionally, I assume you meant mingling (fusing) the separate discussions. Good choice of word (whether real or not)!

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by Puddleglum

No, that was my mental spell-checker :/. Since you used "cofuse" intentionally, I assume you meant mingling (fusing) the separate discussions. Good choice of word (whether real or not)!

I was confused by that as well. It makes a lot more sense now.

[Formendacil]

Chapter II of The Book of Lost Tales begins with what will be a feature of each chapter going forward: the "Link." This is J.R.R. Tolkien's own terminology, the full title here is Link between Cottage of Lost Play and (Tale 2) Music of Ainur. Since the link is Eriol's story of his time on the Lonely Isle, during which he comes to learn more and more about the history of the fairies, the entirety of "The Cottage of Lost Play," though it includes a comparatively brief tale recounting the history of the cottage itself, is really more to be considered the first "link" than one of the chapters in the same sense as the others. If so, "The Cottage of Lost Play" is the link between the Real World of the readers and the entirety of the mythology.

So there would be some truth in the matter if you wanted to say that the "Music of the Ainur" is the true beginning of the original legendarium; certainly, this is the position in the later version of the tales occupied by its lineal descendent, the Ainulindalë. Actually, the relationship between "The Music of the Ainur" and "The Ainulindalë" is a fascinating one, and I will quote CT himself to show why:

Originally Posted by Christopher Tolkien in the Commentary on The Music of the Ainur

In later years the Creation myth was revised and rewritten over and over again; but it is notable that, in this case only and in contrast to the development of the rest of the mythology, there is a direct tradition, manuscript to manuscript, from the earliest draft to the final version; each text is directly based on the one preceding.

...

There were indeed very many changes, which can be followed stage by stage through the successive texts, and much new matter came in, but the fall of the original sentences can continually be recognized in the last version of the Ainulindalë, written more than thirty years later, and even many phrases survived.

I'll be honest--although this fact intrigues and fascinates me, the product of the matter is that this is one of the more boring chapters in the BoLT to read and the material to discuss, at least in terms of comparison, is a bit harder to come by. But that doesn't mean there's nothing.

After all, there's the "Link." I remember when I first read The Book of Lost Tales, I was excited to see, in the flesh and blood, the appearance of a character who had appeared only as a dusty reference in The Silmarillion. I'm referring, of course, to Rúmil. There's nothing in the later legendarium to suggest that he joined the Exiles (though 9/10s of the Noldor did, so it's hardly implausible), that he was a thrall in Angband, or settled after the War of Wrath on the Lonely Isle. All we really know is that he was a sage on whose work Fëanor improved.

I find it interesting that Rúmil says of himself that "Know you that the Noldoli grow old astounding slow, and yet have I grey hairs in the study of all the tongues of the Valar and Eldar." The narrator had earlier said of one of Eriol's guides to bed on his first night that "One of these... was old in appearance and grey of locks, and few of that folk were so."

I bring this up because one of the notes I made in "The Cottage of Lost Play" that did not end up in my post on that chapter had to do with the aging of the Elves. That chapter said of those in the Hall of Fire: "In one thing only were all alike, that a look of great happiness lit with a merry expectation of further mirth and joy lay on every face. The soft light of candles too was upon them all; it shone on bright tresses and gleamed about dark hair, or here or there set a pale fire in locks gone grey."

The aging of the Elves is given more play in the BoLT than it will get in the LotR, despite that fact that a major motif in both books is the slow fading and withdrawal of the Elves. In the LotR, only Círdan displays the physical signs of aging (Celeborn's silver hair, I've always assumed, is not hair gone grey, but the hair of his youth also, as seems to be typical of his kin among the royal house of the Teleri.

(Sidebar on aging: Rúmil says the Noldoli age slowly. I've never been inclined to read this as him saying the Gnomes differ from the other Elves in this respect... but should I reconsider that?)

Speaking of Teleri and Noldoli, CT's commentary on the "Link" gives us a handy table that I will attempt to reproduce here:

Lost Tales

... ... ...

Silmarillion

Teleri

... ... ...

Vanyar

(including Inwir)
Noldoli

... ... ...

Noldor

(Gnomes)
Solosimpi

... ... ...

Teleri

Tolkien's reuse of the name "Teleri" (the second reuse we've encountered, after "Vairë") can make the whole discussion of the different branches of the Eldar even more confusing than they start as.

My earlier question, of what language they are speaking to Eriol is answered in this chapter, as Galin already quoted, but the timeline of how long Eriol's been on the isle remains very vague and context in which he learned Elfin has been glided over. THAT he has learned it we are told, WHERE and FROM WHOM is not.

I noticed a few terminology sorts of things that I'll list off (I have no "point" to any of them, beyond observation):

1. Rúmil's speech seems to be littered with a bit more Elfin than what is reported of the others (who are all supposed to be speaking Elfin anyway...): "when tirípti lirilla here comes a bird, an imp of Melko" and he speaks of Mar Vanya Tyaliéva rather than the Cottage of Lost Play. It gives him a distinct character but its an inconsistent application of the translator conceit, I think.

2. "Gods" could (should?) probably join the discussion of "fairies" and "Gnomes" regarding words used in the BoLT and not much in the later works.

3. "The wastes of the time" ought to be the title of a fantasy novel. Rúmil uses the term, saying "very mighty are the things you ask, and their true answer delves beyond the uttermost confines of the wastes of time." As a noun, "waste(s)" is fairly rare--possibly because it connotes an empty, vast expanse of land or sea. Still, the use of "wastes" to describe the expanse of time is a typically Tolkienian use of the term, one that makes me think of the connection between space and time--and its kind of weird to think about, because "space/time" is the sort of science-fiction/theoretical physics sort of concept I don't usually associate with a linguist during World War I--but, there you have it, it's still a valid connection to make anyway, because we know Tolkien was a reader of sci-fi (at least a decade later).


There are no poems at the end of this chapter and there are no obviously "what if" questions occurring to me--partly because of the close similarities between this Music of the Ainur and the last Music of the Ainur (for the is, of course, what "Ainulindalë" means) are so strong.

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Tolkien's reuse of the name "Teleri" (the second reuse we've encountered, after "Vairë") can make the whole discussion of the different branches of the Eldar even more confusing than they start as.

Tolkien did get into the habit of reusing names he liked, like renaming Bladorthin to Gandalf. While the whole Eldar's origin story remains the same, you are not wrong when you say it makes it more confusing. The transition between the Silmarillion and BoLT is often quite difficult, as the name are all different, very few the same.
I have no issues with the reuse, as remembering the change is not too difficult, but there are some other changes and things that confuse me, one of which being the changing of names without telling the reader. There were a few of these, and they really set off the pace, leaving you scratching your head as to what is happening. I will admit, I did close my book gently, but firmly, in frustration of these 'silent changes'.

Originally Posted by Formencadil

"The wastes of the time" ought to be the title of a fantasy novel. Rúmil uses the term, saying "very mighty are the things you ask, and their true answer delves beyond the uttermost confines of the wastes of time." As a noun, "waste(s)" is fairly rare--possibly because it connotes an empty, vast expanse of land or sea. Still, the use of "wastes" to describe the expanse of time is a typically Tolkienian use of the term, one that makes me think of the connection between space and time--and its kind of weird to think about, because "space/time" is the sort of science-fiction/theoretical physics sort of concept I don't usually associate with a linguist during World War I--but, there you have it, it's still a valid connection to make anyway, because we know Tolkien was a reader of sci-fi (at least a decade later).

I never thought of that as a sci-fi sort of thing. I interpreted it a very different way. I read it as though Rumil was telling us that the true answers were lost long ago, and that it was impossible to try at retrieve them, unless you could relive the past and be there to hear it for yourself. The use of 'wastes' brought me to believe that Rumil was speaking quite negatively, lamenting the loss of valuable information. I never considered that it could've been the 'space' part of space/time. I can see the connection between 'wastes of time' and sci-fi after reading wastes like that, but it seems too obscure to be true. It's more likely that it was meant for Rumil to sound negative that nobody can tell Eriol anything, rather than it being lost forever, probably in the infinite.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx

I never thought of that as a sci-fi sort of thing. I interpreted it a very different way. I read it as though Rumil was telling us that the true answers were lost long ago, and that it was impossible to try at retrieve them, unless you could relive the past and be there to hear it for yourself. The use of 'wastes' brought me to believe that Rumil was speaking quite negatively, lamenting the loss of valuable information. I never considered that it could've been the 'space' part of space/time. I can see the connection between 'wastes of time' and sci-fi after reading wastes like that, but it seems to obscure to be true. It's more likely that it was meant for Rumil to sound negative that nobody can tell Eriol anything, rather than it being lost forever, probably in the infinite.

I'm not trying to argue that Tolkien is doing anything particularly scientifictional. Mostly, I wanted to remark on the coolness of a phrase that caught my eye as I was reading. And then, before I wrote anything, I figured I'd think the phrase through--and double-check the definitions of "wastes"--and the fact that it's normally applied to space rather than time struck me as an appropriate encapsulation of Tolkien's way of doing things: it's a very archaic-sounding phrase, and indeed it is an older, less-freqent use of the word to refer to dimensions of space, but it's still a twentieth-century image that it creates, substituting time for space.

Not that I'm saying Tolkien was necessarily thinking about all this--he may have just been having Rúmil make a subtle joke about "wasting time."

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

I'm not trying to argue that Tolkien is doing anything particularly scientifictional. Mostly, I wanted to remark on the coolness of a phrase that caught my eye as I was reading. And then, before I wrote anything, I figured I'd think the phrase through--and double-check the definitions of "wastes"--and the fact that it's normally applied to space rather than time struck me as an appropriate encapsulation of Tolkien's way of doing things: it's a very archaic-sounding phrase, and indeed it is an older, less-freqent use of the word to refer to dimensions of space, but it's still a twentieth-century image that it creates, substituting time for space.

Not that I'm saying Tolkien was necessarily thinking about all this--he may have just been having Rúmil make a subtle joke about "wasting time."

In a forum where we're known for over-analyzing things, I'm pretty sure we're over analyzing it. I bet it just would've been a sentence that sounded pretty cool and Tolkien thought, 'Hey, this sentence sounds just right. I like the way the words fit. No point in ever editing it.'

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

1. Rúmil's speech seems to be littered with a bit more Elfin than what is reported of the others (who are all supposed to be speaking Elfin anyway...): "when tirípti lirilla here comes a bird, an imp of Melko" and he speaks of Mar Vanya Tyaliéva rather than the Cottage of Lost Play. It gives him a distinct character but its an inconsistent application of the translator conceit, I think.

But the only words not translated in Rúmil’s speech (except for the expletive tirípti lirilla) are names of people and places, which one should not expect to be translated, even when a translated version of the name might make sense in English. The same practice of not translating personal names and place names is the normal practice in written tales set in non-English environments. A story set in France would refer to the city of l’Havre, not to a city called The Harbour, to the Jardin des Plantes, not to the Garden of Plants, to François and Pierre rather than to Frank and Peter. Tolkien is here following normal practice used by translators.

2. "Gods" could (should?) probably join the discussion of "fairies" and "Gnomes" regarding words used in the BoLT and not much in the later works.

The word Gods is used less than here in later works by Tolkien, but still used, whereas fairy is used only once in The Hobbit and gnome not at all. Douglas Charles Kane in his Arda Reconsidered, page 251, writes:

With a few small exceptions, Christopher [Tolkien] eliminates all reference to the Valar as “gods,” although that terminology remained common in the later versions of both the Quenta and the Annals.

3. … it's still a valid connection to make anyway, because we know Tolkien was a reader of sci-fi (at least a decade later).

Agreed. There is also a letter from Tolkien to Richard Lupoff which admits to Tolkien having read earlier Martian Books by Edgar Rice Burroughs but declares a distaste for Burroughs’ Tarzan character. See http://books.google.ca/books?id=B0lo...page&q&f=false .

Originally Posted by Tar-Jêx

The transition between the Silmarillion and BoLT is often quite difficult, as the name are all different, very few the same.

Hardly so. Most of the major characters have exactly the same names as in versions written later: Ilúvatar, Manwë, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna, Oromë, Mandos, Tulkas, Fëanor, Barahir, Beren, Lúthien, Beleg, Tuor, Huor, Turgon, Idril, Glorfindel, and Elwing, for example. A few characters have smaller changes of name: Melco later becomes Melcor, Ungweliantë later becomes Ungoliant, Tinwë Linto later becomes Thingol, Dairon later becomes Daeron, Meglin later becomes Maeglin, Eärendel later becomes Eärendil, Sorontur later becomes Thorondor, Glorund later becomes Glaurung, Kosomot later becomes Gothmog and so forth.

In contrast very few characters have totally different names. Melian is one of these, being variously named as Gwedheling, Gwendelin(g), Gwenthlin, and Gwenniel. And notoriously Sauron is replaced by Tevildo, King of Cats, or rather the opposite is true. The other such renamed characters are minor characters.

You seem not to recall much of the work. I suggest trying to reread it before commenting on it. There are indeed many changes of names and of style and of plot in respect to the published Silmarillion. If this bothers you then you are missing one of the main reasons for interest in any author’s early version of a work: the differences from the later version or versions.

I recall when this volume first appeared. Christopher Tolkien had already published Unfinished Tales and one hoped for more. That he now intended to publish early versions of all his father’s work was totally unexpected, considering earlier remarks which had suggested no such course.

The work was for me a delightful surprise.

On page 4 of this volume Christopher Tolkien writes: “We do not actually see the Silmarils as we see the Ring.” That seems to me to be a flaw in The Silmarillion, perhaps a necessary flaw considering that The Silmarillion was supposed to be a summary of imagined fuller accounts.

But The Book of Lost Tales, while incomplete and in disagreement with later conceptions told its tale in full. The reader sees the growth of the Two Trees in Tolkien’s only full description of them. The reader sees the city of the Valar with the only descriptions of the dwellings of the Valar, internal and external. One sees the Silmarils themselves as Fëanor creates them. One sees Rúmil himself, not as a vaguely imagined ancient elven sage responsible for an early writing system but as an eccentric, old codger, enraged at meeting with a bird whose speech he cannot understand, and then blaming the no-doubt innocent bird for the sage’s ignorance.

The story, though incomplete, is most enjoyable.

[Tar-Jêx]

Originally Posted by jallanite

Hardly so. Most of the major characters have exactly the same names as in versions written later: Ilúvatar, Manwë, Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna, Oromë, Mandos, Tulkas, Fëanor, Barahir, Beren, Lúthien, Beleg, Tuor, Huor, Turgon, Idril, Glorfindel, and Elwing, for example. A few characters have smaller changes of name: Melco later becomes Melcor, Ungweliantë later becomes Ungoliant, Tinwë Linto later becomes Thingol, Dairon later becomes Daeron, Meglin later becomes Maeglin, Eärendel later becomes Eärendil, Sorontur later becomes Thorondor, Glorund later becomes Glaurung, Kosomot later becomes Gothmog and so forth.

I was more talking about places and things, not characters. However, some of the Valar did undergo name changes. Mandos was Vefantur, Nienna was Fui. I know a number of people who actually skip pages (despicable) and they find themselves lost, because you only get told once who these people are.

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

I'll be honest--although this fact intrigues and fascinates me, the product of the matter is that this is one of the more boring chapters in the BoLT to read and the material to discuss, at least in terms of comparison, is a bit harder to come by. But that doesn't mean there's nothing.

In terms of comparisons between the Music of the Ainur in BoLT and the Music of the Ainur in The Silm, I agree. The chapters on their own, I think, are anything but boring. The creation myth stands, to me, as one of the most beautifully crafted chapters in The Silmarillion. Tolkien's creation myth is Music...the descriptions of instruments, voices, the Theme of Iluvatar and Melkor's discursive, contrasting Theme is fascinating reading. For a creation myth of a fantasy world, Tolkien using "Music," and continuing with that theme, is rather marvelous. It makes the entire creation story believable, to think of a world that is created and woven out of "Music."

Originally Posted by Form

3. "The wastes of the time" ought to be the title of a fantasy novel. Rúmil uses the term, saying "very mighty are the things you ask, and their true answer delves beyond the uttermost confines of the wastes of time." As a noun, "waste(s)" is fairly rare--possibly because it connotes an empty, vast expanse of land or sea. Still, the use of "wastes" to describe the expanse of time is a typically Tolkienian use of the term, one that makes me think of the connection between space and time--and its kind of weird to think about, because "space/time" is the sort of science-fiction/theoretical physics sort of concept I don't usually associate with a linguist during World War I--but, there you have it, it's still a valid connection to make anyway, because we know Tolkien was a reader of sci-fi (at least a decade later).

Then in the Music text, Rumil uses "deeps of time":

'Hear now things that have not been heard among Men, and the Elves speak seldom of them; yet did Manwe Sulimo, Lord of Elves and Men, whisper them to the fathers of my father in the deeps of time.'

Another word, when used a noun, describing vastness, space but being associated with time. Tolkien uses "deeps of the Sea" and "depths of the Sea" a few times in this chapter. I agree with Tar-jex in "wastes of time" suggesting negative, something lost in the vast expanse of time. Where "deeps of time" suggests something positive, or full. Typically I associate depth with substance, or fullness. So, we have two instances where words describing space are tied to time. The first suggests emptiness (or something lost?) and the second I think of "deeps of time" suggests fullness.

[Puddleglum]

I was struck by the extra emphasis Tolkien gave to the meaning of the "Creation" in "Music of the Ainur" as opposed to what made it into Silmarillion's "Ainulindale". It's not that he changed his meaning, only how he expressed it.

In Ainilindale, he refers to "a mightly theme" and "a Great Music" - but in BoLT's "Music of the Ainur" he is more clear and explicit that the intent is to write a story which shall be most worth reading and living and bring the greatest glory on it's author.

Upon a time Ilúvatar propounded a mighty design of his heart to the Ainur, unfolding a history whose vastness and majesty has never been equalled by aught that he had related before, and the glory of its beginning and the splendour of its end amazed the Ainur, so that they bowed before Ilúvatar and were speechless.

Then said Ilúvatar: “The story that I have laid before you, and that great region of beauty that I have described unto you as the place where all that history might be unfolded and enacted, is related only as it were in outline. I have not filled in all the empty spaces, neither have I recounted to you all the adornments and things of loveliness and delicacy whereof my mind is full.

For me, part of the beauty of what Tolkien created is that it pictures (as few, if any, other works of Fiction do) how our real world may actually be better (in the end) for the evil that lives in it. It touches on the age-old question "How can evil exist in a world ruled by a good God" while accepting the Catholic (and historical Christian) belief - which Tolkien held to - that God really is both Good, Omnisicient (all knowing), and soveriegn.

Thou Melko shalt see that no theme can be played save it come in the end of Iluvatar’s self, nor can any alter the music in Iluvatar’s despite. He that attempts this finds himself in the end but aiding me in devising a thing of still greater grandeur and more complex wonder: –

for lo! through Melko have terror as fire, and sorrow like dark waters, wrath like thunder, and evil as far from my light as the depths of the uttermost dark places, come into the design that I laid before you. Through him has pain and misery been made in the clash of overwhelming musics; and with confusion of sound have cruelty, and ravening, and darkness, loathly mire and all putrescence of thought or thing, foul mists and violent flame, cold without mercy, been born, and death without hope.

Yet is this through him and not by him; and he shall see, and ye all likewise,

and even shall those beings, who must now dwell among his evil and endure through Melko misery and sorrow, terror and wickedness, declare in the end that it redoundeth only to my greater glory, and doth but make the theme more worth the hearing, Life more worth the living, and the World so much more the wonderful and marvellous, that of all the deeds of Iluvatar it shall be called his mightiest and his loveliest.

Not everyone will accept or hold to Tolkien's underlying beliefs, and that's ok. What Tolkien does is write a story which contains application to serious feelings and aches within our our real, primary world while at the same time being a Story capable of being enjoyed on it's own plane even WITHOUT reference to application.

A story which contains application to serious questions within our real world - without requiring anyone to consider those questions (in a word, without being preachy).

I would dare to suggest that the ability to encapsulate both of these (both a great story plus application to deep feelings readers have within their real world) are two of the key hallmarks of all great Classics of literature - whether from Homer, Dickens, Shakespeare, Austen ... or even Tolkien.

------------------

p.s. A key phrase in this is declare in the end. Most great stories wouldn't be called "great" if they stopped in the middle - it's the "Dénouement", the resolution or catastrophe (or eucatastrophe) - which provides the reason why the "story" is "good", in spite of (or because of) all the pain and evil experienced by characters within the story.